Dipping Into Darkness
by Flek Siner
Summary: Who needs Rumble McSkirmish to fight your battles when you've got the help of a monstrous dream demon?
1. Chapter 1

A young boy walked back and forth in a musty upstairs loft. He wore a set of boyish clothes topped off with a blue baseball cap. His hands squirmed over each other repetitively as he paced; beads of sweat began to drop off his pale, unblemished skin. The nervous looking boy's name was Dipper Pines. And he was terrified.

Now Dipper was no stranger to fear. Since moving to his Great Uncle Stan's Mystery Shack in Gravity Falls, Oregon for the summer a few weeks ago with his twin sister Mabel, they'd been under a constant bombardment from freaks and monsters from the woods around town. He'd faced down polyamorous gnomes, giant robots, sociopathic, child psychics, even an army of clones of himself. He'd even say that living/working with his Grunkle Stan was terrifying in its own right.

But for some reason, while almost all of the threats he and his sister had dealt with had been life threatening, and shortening on some counts, Dipper had never been more scared for himself. Earlier that day, Dipper had taken it upon himself to chase off the boyfriend of the Mystery Shack's only cashier and the object of his affection, Wendy, since she wasn't there for the day.

He insulted the teen, Robbie, and, after a short session of childish name calling, destroyed the teen's cell phone when Robbie had mockingly said he was going to ask Wendy if she want to go out on a date with the boy. After smacking the cellphone onto the ground and sending it to oblivion, Robbie challenged the boy to a fight. To settle things between them.

_"You. Me. Circle Park. Three o'clock. We finish this."_

That's what Robbie said to him as he stormed off. Leaving to Dipper to come to the realization that he was completely and totally screwed.

"What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do?" Dipper mumbled to himself. He had tried to get help from Mabel and Grunkle Stan, but they just made fun of him for being rash. Well Mabel did that, Stan just made fun of him for existing. They told him to either fight him like a man or hide like a wimp. Even the only other male friend Dipper had, Soos the lovable handyman, had just told him to either put up or shut up.

Dipper thought angrily to himself as he paced, _"Where did they get off?! I'm not rash! Rash is throwing a television out a window because you couldn't find the remote! It was wearing a sweater around your legs because you couldn't find proper pants!"_

As he thought Dipper absently began to tap on the large, leather bound book he kept in his vest's inner pocket. The Journal. A book Dipper had found while exploring the woods outside the Mystery Shack. The book had been the life saver of him and his sister since they got to Gravity Falls. It held knowledge on all of the strange creatures and happenings around the town. It had told him how to fight grizzled monsters and shown the paths to strange other worldly objects…..

"Wait! Duuuuh! The book! Why didn't I think of that earlier?" Dipper exclaimed. He pulled out the Journal and began frantically turning over pages, looking for anything that could help.

"I'm not dealing with those testosterone fueled jerks again," Dipper said as he flipped past the Manotaur's page. "Or the Gnomes… I can't remember where the size changing crystals are… Don't really wanna try that copy machine again. Three of me is probably as wimpy as one… Oh what's this?"

Dipper had turned onto a page with the image of a blackened out triangle with arms and legs drooping from it. A white eye was stuck in the center of it; it also seemed to wearing a bow tie and top hat.

"What is this thing? A dapper corn chip?" He read over the page. "Bill Cipher. Says he's a dream demon." Reading further Dipper saw crossed out text and large red words all over the page. "CAN'T BE TRUSTED" and "DO NOT SUMMON AT ALL COSTS!" stood out the most. The entry on Bill was largely a warning. The author of the book had apparently met the demon several times, on account of the way he wrote about it. Turning the page Dipper saw the words "LAST RESORT ONLY!" emblazoned at the top. Below was what looked to be a quick guide to summoning the creature.

Dipper read aloud from the book, "I have created an alternative way to summon Bill Cipher, as the previous way gave him too much freedom. This new ritual will bind Bill to me, like a familiar, until I banish him. I fear the day I have to use this ritual. Everything will have come apart if that's the case."

Dipper looked up from the text and thought. Was summoning this thing worth it? This thing, this Bill Cipher, was apparently the most dangerous creature in all of Gravity Falls. The Journal said he could destroy his mind and everything he cared for. On the other hand the demon could also give Dipper the upper hand he needed against Robbie. Turning Robbie's brain into gazpacho did sound nice…..

Dipper weighed his options. Summon an extremely dangerous demon to fight Robbie or get the ever loving crap kicked out of him and get humiliated in the process. The thought of Wendy knowing about the fight crossed his mind. If he lost, what would she do? Comfort him? Call him a loser?

"Get your soul destroyed by an other worldly monster or be humiliated by a huge jerk? Die awfully to an evil demon or get beaten up by a guy with a nose bigger than my arms?"

Dipper raised and lowered his arms like a scale as he thought. A beep from the end table across the room took him from his thoughts. It was the electronic alarm clock, telling him it was already 2:30! He looked back at the instructions for the summoning ritual.

"Uh…. The book did say that he would have to do what I said. I just have to be careful that's all. Besides, not having a soul might be liberating. Give me a new worldview.

Mabel was finishing a late lunch of cheese wiz and crackers when she saw her brother, Dipper, run at full speed out the back door.

"Bye Mabel! I'm not doing anything weird! Not a thing!" she heard him yell as he ran past her.

"Huh?" she responded. She had barely noticed him until he was right next to her. It was hard to tear Mabel away from cheese wiz. She looked down and saw that he had dropped something in his wake. It was a single white candle; the kind you might see at a fancy restaurant.

Mabel looked at the lone candle for a moment before going back to her business.

"Whatever."

She opened her mouth and sprayed even more of the artificial dairy down her throat. After sufficiently filling her face with the stuff, she stuck several crackers into the mess, and began to crunch down the awful mess. Several noisy crunches later she had gotten it down.

"Ahhhh," she sighed. "You know food's good when it hurts going down. Whelp," she said standing, "Time to go help Grunkle Stan with his fear of heights. Now where did I put that set of hand cuffs?

Dipper stood in a small clearing under a collection of Gravity Fall's old pine trees. He had pain staking placed a series of candles in the shape of an isosceles triangle, and lit each one with the scrutiny of a professional arsonist.

"I have to make sure everything is perfect. One miss step and I'll get possessed, or killed, or whatever it is demons do. I knew I should have finished Faust," Dipper said, fretting over his handiwork. "I've only got ten minutes left." He did a quick once over of his handiwork. Everything looked in place. The alchemical symbols for gold was in place, the sacrificial decoder ring was ready to be smashed, all twelve candles were aligned perfec-

"Twelve candles! There's supposed to be thirteen! Oh no! No. No. No. There's no time to go back! The rituals gonna fail!" Dipper looked at the ritual site; the only misstep was the candle. Maybe he could replace the candle with something else. Dipper picked up one of the candles and snapped in two. He then stuck the now two smaller candles in their proper spots.

"Not sure if this is right…." Dipper looked at his watch, it was 2:55. "Close enough!"

Dipper got into his space, one foot exactly in front of the ritual triangle's flat side, and began to read from the book.

_"Triangulor! Isoscelment! Enslavemanate!" _

A blue glow started to emanate from the circle. The sky darkened. Dipper could hear animals in woods starting to shriek. The wind started up into a frenzy, blowing Dipper to and fro. He could feel something rumbling within him.

"Ughgh… What's happening? It feels like I'm gonna throw up." Dipper clutched his stomach in pain. Dropping to his knees, Dipper lost control of his body and began to chant.

_"Regnah ffilc! Regnah ffilc! Regnah ffilc!"_

The sound of maniacal laughter echoed throughout the air.


	2. Chapter 2

The sound of a high pitched laugh reverberated through the woods of Gravity Falls. As the laugh continued time seemed to slow down. Everything went still; the color drained from the environment, making the forest look like a paint by numbers.

Dipper Pines lifted his head to look in the direction of the laugh. He could control his body again. He saw the candle light from the ritual site had been taken into the sky, still in their triangular pattern. They moved around the triangle clockwise, increasing with speed as the laughter got louder and louder. Dipper had to cover his ears from the noise.

The lights sped up to the point where they looked like one solid mass. The laughter reached its fevered pitch and then turned into a higher pitched screech. It was as if someone was shoving a raccoon in a garbage disposal. Something began to form within the triangle of light. It colored the triangle pitch black and started to stretch and morph the triangle, like it was trying to escape. The triangle of light held and resumed its original shape.

The black in the triangle seemed to wobble within the light before a white light appeared in the center. It moved slightly upwards and expanded to reveal an eye. White lines ran across the pyramids like snakes, taking their places along the triangles shape. They looked like little rectangles along the bottom. Two more, albeit smaller, triangles formed and stuck themselves together over the rectangles. It was a bowtie.

Noodle like limbs sprouted from the sides of the triangle and drooped nonchalantly towards the ground. A tiny top hat popped into existence above the triangles head. It now looked like the drawing in the book.

The screaming stopped, and was replaced by an obnoxious voice. _"Uhhh. What did you do to me?"_

Dipper didn't expect for the mighty dream demon to sound so whiny. Dipper picked himself up and cleared his throat.

"Um… Uh… I summoned you to do my bidding demon!" Dipper did his best to sound like an evil wizard. "You are under my total control!"

The triangle's eye moved down to Dipper. It stared at him like he was a slab of meat. _"Kid, you have no idea what you're __**MESSING WITH!**__" _The triangles voice dropped several octaves into a deep baritone. It floated down to Dipper with uncanny speed. It looked like it was about to attack him, causing Dipper to jump back. As it reached him, it stopped suddenly. The light around the demon increased its intensity to blinding levels.

_"Ahhh! What is this?" _the demon yelled in shock. _"Why can't I annihilate you?!"_

Dipper opened his eyes and grew a smug look. It looked like the ritual worked, even with the candle. "Yeah that's right. Like I said, you're under my total control."

The triangle seemed to frown with its one eye. _"Listen, kid. Maybe we got off on the wrong foot. Let's start over. The name's Bill Cipher."_

"Dipper."

_"Well "Dipper" how about you let me outta this painful light thingy, and we can move along with this conversation?"_

"Oh no. I know about you, Bill," Dipper said with a knowing smile, "You're not getting out of anything. I know what you're capable of." Bill's eye-frown visibly deepened. "And that's exactly why I called you here." Bill's eye perked up. "I need you to help me win a fight."

_"A fight? Are you kidding kid? You summoned me to fight in some school yard rumble? Talk about over kill."_

"It was my only option," Dipper said with a whinier tone, "Besides over kill is exactly what this guy needs."

Bill looked at Dipper and floated around him. A small cane materialized in Bill's hands. _"So you want me to teach this other kid a lesson is that it, kid? Well that's easy as pi." _Bill began to twirl his cane around in his tiny hands. _"What'd this kid do to ya anyways? Kill your family or something?"_

Dipper looked slightly embarrassed for a moment before saying, "I… uh… accidently broke his phone after getting into an argument about a girl with him."

_"Hahahahaha! You doomed some punk teenager because of that?! That's harsh kid. I like your style." _Dipper lowered his head in shame. _"A warning though. I can't really interact with anything physical."_

"What?!"

_"Yeah, I'm incorporeal. Go figure. I'm gonna need a vessel if you want me to do anything actually damaging, like break his legs, or snap his neck, maybe shove my fist in his-."_

"I get it! I get it!" Dipper said with a disgusted look, "Well you don't need to actually hurt him. Wait? How were you going to annihilate me, if you can't touch me?"

_"Well actually, kid, we're in a semi-metaphysical mind scape. Created by the images your brain just saw as you summoned me. I can't be seen in the physical world normally." _

"So what, am I just staring off into space right now or something?"

_"Actually you're asleep. Probably standing too, like a horse or something! Hahaha!" _

"Wait! I'm asleep. What if I miss the fight?! If I don't show up, Robbie'll tell Wendy I chickened out, and then and then-!"

_"Whoa! Calm down Pine Tree. This little conversation will only have taken seconds when you wake up."_

"Oh. Well that's good," Dipper sighed, "Hold on, Pine Tree?"

_"Well your last name's Pines right?"_

"How did you know that?"

_"Oh I know lots of things. __**LOTS OF THINGS!**__" _Dipper was taken aback by the sudden tonal change.

"A-Anyways… Here's the plan. We go to the park. You come out and show something Robbie that'll make him leave me alone and we're done. No real harm done. Just a little scare. How's that sound?"

_"Sounds A-Okay to me boss man!" _Bill exclaimed with a few ounces of sarcasm.

"Good. Good! Let's uh, let's go my familiar! To the park!" Dipper said, a little courage leaking into his voice. Bill rolled his eye and held out his hand.

_"Here let's shake on it. Make it all official." _A blue flame surrounded the demon's stubby hand. Dipper looked at it with fear before grabbing it reluctantly. _"Alrighty, let's do this thing, kid!"_

The triangular demon rose into the air and began to flash colors rapidly. He yelled at Dipper before he dissipated,_ "Remember, kid! Reality is an illusion! The universe is a hologram! Buy gold! Bye!" _And with that Bill had vanished into the air with a flash.

Dipper opened his eyes. He really had been asleep. He looked around the forest and saw that everything had regained its color and movement. Looking at his watch, Dipper saw that he still had time to get to the park.

"How am I going to call Bill?" As he spoke, Dipper felt a painful burning on his left hand. "Ack! What the?!" Looking at his hand, Dipper saw a small sigil covering the back of his left hand. It was a tiny drawing of Bill Cipher.

"I guess that's how," Dipper sighed painfully.

Walking to the park Dipper wondered what Bill was doing. Was he following him? Floating around him like some kind of geometrical ghost? As he thought, he saw Mabel on the street, leading a blindfolded Grunkle Stan towards the water tower.

"Hope I don't hear about that on the news tonight." Dipper said to himself. She gave him a happy wave and turned back around to continue doing… whatever it was she was doing.

"Better not tell them what just happened. Don't think demon summoning is a good way to bring a family closer."

As he closed the distance to the park, Dipper heard the clock tower ring 3 o'clock. He saw Robbie sitting on top of a park bench with his hood up. He must have thought he looked cool. Robbie turned his head to look at him.

"Well, well, well. Look who decided to show up," the teen said getting up from the bench, "I thought you'd chicken out. You ready to settle this like men?" Robbie menacingly advanced towards him.

Dipper decided to give him one chance before unleashing Hell. "Look, dude. I don't think you want to fight me."

"Oh. And why's that? You got some secret karate skills I don't know about? Listen, kid, you asked for this. And when someone asks for a beating from Robbie V, he delivers."

"Okay, you asked for it. Bill, sick'em."

"Bill? Who's that?" Robbie asked incredulously, "You hire a body guard or somthin?"

"Something like that," Dipper said with a smirk.

At that, the world began to, once again, slow down and fade into a colorless backdrop. Robbie looked around him in confusion.

"What the?! What's going on?" Robbie hadn't seen anything this weird since that night at the convenience store. Or was that a dream. He couldn't really remember. Robbie looked at Dipper and saw the boy raise his left hand towards him. A little triangle was tattooed on his pale skin. It began to glow; it shifted off of Dipper's hand and onto the air. It grew and stretched, turning a bright gold.

A voice came from the floating shape, _"So you're the guy he was going to fight. I gotta say kid," _Bill said to Dipper, _"I was expecting more than a pockmarked pubescent. I thought this guy was gonna be huge, but he doesn't even look like he can lift a paper weight. Hahaha!" _

The confusion on Robbie's face turned to anger. He wasn't really sure what was going on, but he did know that no one made fun of him. Especially weird, floating nachos.

"Hey shut up triangle dude!" Robbie took a swing at Bill. It phased right through his body, causing Robbie to lose his balance and end up on the ground.

_"Hey, kid look. He thinks he can fight me! Hahaha! Here champ, let me show you how a __**REAL MAN FIGHTS!**__" _Bill quickly flew around Robbie's head and pointed a finger at him. _"You ever wondered what your insides looked like?" _In a flash Robbie found himself looking at muscle and tendons instead of his own skin.

"Ahhh!" Robbie started screaming at the top of his lungs. He could feel rocks and grass scraping up against every part of him. It was more painful that anything he'd ever experienced.

"Uh, Bill," Dipper said nervously. Maybe this was a bad idea, after all.

_"Eh. Bored now," _Bill said with a shrug, _"Let's try this." _In another flash Robbie's skin was back in place. He tried to scramble to his feet, but was caught by an unseen force. _"Look what I can do?" _Bill reached out, and with a waggle of his tiny, blackened fingers all of Robbie's teeth came flying out of his mouth into Bill's palm. _"Hehehe! Look at all these cavities. You're disgusting guy! Here, you can have them back." _Bill began flicking the teeth back at Robbie at high speed.

Dipper looked on in horror at the torment Bill was enjoying. He hadn't really thought this was how it was going to go down. Maybe a few weird wacky faces or giant monster screaming at him, but not awful mutilation. Dipper didn't care for Robbie…. Okay he really didn't like Robbie… Alright, he hated Robbie, but this was inhumane.

"Bill, I think we should stop now. I think Robbie's not gonna mess with me anymore. Or leave the house for a few weeks," Dipper said sullenly. Bill turned to look at Dipper, still flinging teeth at the screaming teen.

_"You've gotta go big or go home, Pine Tree. If we don't go all out now, then he won't learn his lesson. Besides throwing this filthy little punk's teeth is fun!"_

Robbie decided to try his luck with running away after the fifteenth tooth. He sprinted out of the park at high speed. Only to end up running right back into the park, towards Bill.

_"There's no running from me Robbie! I control __**EVERYTHING **__here!" _

"Ahh!" the only thing Robbie could do at this point was scream.

_"That's it scream! Hahaha!" _Bill continued his onslaught of teeth.

"Bill that's enough," Dipper yelled, "He's had eno-!"

"Ahh!" Robbie cut him off.

"He's had en-!"

"Ahh!"

"He's had en-!"

"Ahh!"

"Jeeze, Robbie shut up!" Dipper yelled exasperated. Bill snapped his fingers and Robbie's mouth was gone. The screams were still there, just muffled.

_"How's that?" _Bill asked.

"A lot better actually, that was real-! Hey don't change the subject! What was that? I told you to stop! Now stop!"

_"Sorry kid, guess I just didn't hear you," _Bill said, poking a finger into a nonexistent ear canal. _"Maybe speak up next time."_

"Uhh! That's it! End it now! We're done. Let Robbie go." Bill shrugged and snapped his fingers. The world sped back to reality. Both Dipper woke up in the park. Drool ran down both of their respective faces. Robbie jumped up with a start.

"Ah! Ah! Wh-Wh-What was…" He looked at Dipper, "Ahh!" He did a one eighty and took off in the other direction. He was relieved he could actually escape this time.

"Ughhghghg," Dipper sighed. "What did I just do?" Dipper looked down at his left hand. "I'm gonna be dealing with this for a while aren't I."

_"You got that right kid!"_

"Bill!? Where are you?"

_"Down here, kid!" _the voice was coming from Dipper's sigil, _"Normally when I finish a job I scram, but it looks like your fancy summoning ritual's keeping me around. Looks like we're gonna be stuck together for a while!" _Dipper gulped.


	3. Chapter 3

Dipper looked at his hand with a look of horror. Bill's mark was still emblazoned on his, formerly unblemished, skin. The pupil in the center moved to stare into his eyes.

"Why are you still here?! Leave! The job's done. Go away!" Dipper angrily yelled at his blemished skin.

_"You think I wouldn't be gone by now if I could?!" _Bill's speech caused the mark on Dipper's hand to throb. _"It looks like your little ritual did more than keep me from getting into your mind. I'm stuck. I can't even move away from your body. The most I can manage is just move around your scrawny little body." _Bill's mark then moved from the positon on Dipper's hand onto his arm. It felt like a million invisible legs crawling along Dipper's skin.

"Ughgh. Don't do that," Dipper disgustedly groaned, "Wait! You didn't, like, possess me did you?"

_"I wish! A possession might have made this little ordeal worth it. It looks like I'm just bound to your pathetic existence for the time being. _

"Hey! My existence is not pathetic. At least I have a full body!" Dipper argued.

_"Yeah, only being able to exist in three dimensions sure is superior to a perfect being of pure energy. Whatever you say, kid. Listen, why don't you use that fancy little diary of yours to find out how to separate us? Better yet! Just run into traffic; your death might release me from this awful skin prison. Look a semi! Jump quickly!" _Bill ranted. Dipper's hand continued to painful ache the more the demon spoke.

Dipper ignored the traffic comment and decided to check the Journal. There had to be something on exorcism or reverse rituals. Maybe tips on spectral tattoo removal. Dipper began walking home; he figured doing this in a more secluded place would be for the better.

Dipper saw Mabel and Grunkle Stan on the water tower as he walked back to Mystery Shack. His twin was buzzing around Stan, rapidly waving her arms and mouthing, what he assumed to be, words of encouragement. She noticed him walking down the street and gave him an excited wave.

She shaped her arms into "R U O K". She was asking about the fight. Dipper winced a little and gave her a thumbs up. She gave him a concerned look for a moment before reverting back to her normal smile. She returned his thumbs up with her own. Mabel turned her attention back the quivering Grunkle Stan.

_"Looks like little Shooting Star has her hands busy. Shoving an old man off a water tower, looks like hard work. Ya know, I bet you wouldn't have to rely on me for people like Robbie if you could take charge like that! Old man in your way? BLAM! Off a water tower!" _Bill sounded like he was mocking Dipper.

Dipper frowned, "She's not killing Grunkle Stan! She's just… uh… Okay, so I don't what she's doing. But I'm sure it isn't murder! Although…" Dipper recalled back to a week ago, when Stan had thrown out a pitcher of fresh "Mable Juice". "So much screaming," Dipper mumbled. "What did you mean by Shooting Star? Do you just a weird little nickname for everyone?"

_"Sure, that's it. Her bright expression reminded me of a large meteorite entering the atmosphere at high speeds! Doesn't it make perfect sense?!" _Bill screamed in Dipper's head.

"Uh… Sure. I guess," Dipper said confused. He really needed to get this thing out of him. Bill's demented rants made him nervous. He wasn't really sure how to deal with something like Bill. He was the most monstrous thing Dipper had ever been in the company of. It was like the concept of morality was completely alien to him.

_"Morality is a lie, kid." _Bill said, breaking Dipper from his thoughts.

"Wh-What?" How had known that was on his mind?

_"It's a lie. Doesn't matter. Morality is a mental cage designed by the weak." _Bill's voice sounded sinisterly helpful. He thought what he was saying was perfectly normal. _"Also, just because I can't enter your mind fully, doesn't mean I can't read your thoughts. You're like an open book! Hehehe!"_

"You can hear everything?" Dipper asked, scared.

_"Oh, don't worry about it Pine Tree! It's not like your thoughts are particularly interesting! Hahaha!" _Dipper didn't respond. He did his best to keep his mind relatively clear as he walked home.

Dipper walked onto the overgrown lot of the Mystery Shack a little while later. Bill hadn't spoken the rest of the walk home, which Dipper was thankful for. The shack looked the same as it had when he had left an hour ago.

Gompers the goat was in the middle of the yard eating what looked to a tape player. Mabel was going to be mad about that one. He expected to hear her giving the omnivorous goat a lecture about boundaries later that night. Dipper could have pulled the thing out of its mouth, but he had more pressing matters to attend to.

Walking past the goat and into the gift shop, Dipper saw no one at the counter. Wendy would only just be getting back from her family camping trip, so her absence was expected by the boy. He didn't really feel like he could face her right now anyway. Attacking your crush's boyfriend's mind wasn't exactly something he wanted on the table the next time they talked.

Dipper didn't see anyone else in the shack either. The shop was closed so Soos might have already gone home, and Mabel and Grunkle Stan were bot still out.

"Perfect," Dipper said to himself. No interruptions. He would need all the concentration he could get to try and separate himself from Bill. He climbed the stairs to the shared attic he called home.

Dipper moved inside the door quickly and locked the door behind him. Even though he was alone he could just see somebody walking in on him during this. And he really didn't want another embarrassing walk-in from another family member/close friend; they seemed to be happening with a lot more frequency lately.

The nervous boy pulled out the Journal that caused this mess. As he flipped through the pages he could feel Bill's single eye watching him. He felt the mark move from the top of his hand to his palm. It was scanning the text as he moved through the book. Bill was silent as he read.

"Here we go," Dipper mouthed as he turned to the ritual page. His eyes narrowed as he read through the part about the binding. It read, _"Once the ritual is complete the demon will be bound to the summoner until the death of the summoner, where upon the demon's essence will be destroyed along with the summoner's. Thereby ridding the demon from any reality for the rest of time." _Dipper had neglected to read this part of the entry.

The feeling of a centipede crawling across his body caused him to drop the book with a yelp. He looked down and saw the mark of Bill gone from his palm, and hand in general. The crawling went all over his body until it stopped at the back of his neck. The slight throbbing disappeared from his skin. A sound similar to cracking glass went through the room.

_"YOU DIDN'T EVEN BOTHER TO READ THE ENTIRE SPELL!" _Bill's scream was coming from the window above his desk. The world had gone slow, but Dipper could see the light coming through the glass had turned blood red. Bill's geometrical body phased through the frame into the room. His entire body had turned the same red as the sky. The eye in the center of his body looked like was close to exploding.

_"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU'VE __**DONE TO ME**__!?"_

"I read the important parts! I was in a rush! I mean normally I would have, but I-I-I was inna rush and, and!" Dipper was cut off by another scream.

_"__**ENOUGH STUTTERING YOU SWEATY MONKEY!**__" _Dipper immediately clammed up. _"You're the luckiest guy on the planet right now, kid. You know that right? If not for your little __**MESS UP**__ I would have already made you a vegetable." _The boy gulped at the thought. _"Now listen up. For the foreseeable future, you are going to be working with me to undo this bonding."_

"But how?!" Dipper suddenly blurted, "We already checked the Journal! What else is there?"

_"Look at that thing kid," _Bill pointed at the Journal, _"You think that three on there is for show? I know there's gotta be something in one of the other ones."_

"I knew it! Where are they though?"

_"How should I know? I'm not feeling as omniscient as I usually do, so we're going to have to do a little investigating." _

"H-How? On what."

_"Not what, Pine Tree. Who. There's a lot of secrets in this town. And a whole population that's been keeping them. I hope you didn't have any plans, kid. This might take a __**WHILE**__."_

With his last words, Bill faded back into the window. The sky went back to the natural glow of late afternoon. The sigil etched itself back onto Dipper's hand; the throbbing commenced with its appearance. Dipper heard the door opening from down stairs. A familiar voice came up the stairs.

"Dipper, you home! We! Are! Back! Grunkle Stan's in a sort of catatonic state, so be nice to him okay?" Mabel was home.

_"Get ready kid," _Bill's voice was back in his head, _"The mind can be a terrible thing! Hahahaha!" _Dipper could feel his tiny legs giving out.

"Whelp this couldn't get any worse." Dipper sighed.

"Dipper, there's a phone call for you!" It was Mabel again, "It's Wendy!" Dipper shot back up. "She said it was important! You weren't taking weird pictures again, were you?!"

_"You think cavity boy got to her! Hahaha!" _Dipper dropped to the ground. His vision started to get fuzzy, before going black.


	4. Chapter 4

"Hey! Hey! Dipper what are you doing! Are you okay?" Mabel asked her brother, leaning over him. He was lying on the ground with his arms and legs splayed out on the floor. His eyes were boring holes into the ceiling, both of them bloodshot to the point of bursting. His mouth was hanging open without any care for the drool leaking from it.

"Uh…. Dipper. Please don't be dead. Oh no!" She said with a sudden scream, "You didn't drink the Mabel Juice in the fridge did you?! It's not edible for another 24 hours!" She pulled him up into a sitting position and began shaking him back and forth. Dipper's eyes refocused to the light as he shook. His drool flew from his lips and onto his sister's "Scout's Honor, but not really" sweater.

"Eeeeeww!" Mabel yelled, dropping Dipper back onto the floor. She hastily wiped the spittle from her sweater.  
>"What, what's goin on?" Dipper said groggily.<p>

"Wendy's on the phone, dingus! Now go get it! It sounded important," Mabel angrily told him. "Also wipe your mouth off. I don't want you leaking everywhere."

Now Dipper remembered. He was about to die of embarrassment. Nuking Robbie's mind might have sounded good in his head, but dealing with the ramifications of the end game never really crossed his mind.

"Robbie didn't beat you up did he?" Mabel asked him. Her voice had dropped in volume and taken on a serious tone.

"What!? Oh no! Nah, we… ah, worked through it. You know, like adults. We agreed to disagree and all that, you know. Hehehe!" Dipper sputtered. He didn't want to tell Mabel about Bill. He didn't want Bill getting his mitts on her. Not after what he saw the demon was capable of.

"Really?! Oh, Dipper that's great! See I told you. Girl's just hate each other better. I'm really proud of you for doing that." Mabel gave him a toothy smile.

"Yeah, me to," Dipper said rubbing his arms. He hated lying to Mabel; even if it was for the best. It made him feel like he was kicking a puppy. Dipper didn't think he could deal with anymore shame. "I guess I'll go get the phone," Dipper said moving to the stairs. Not having to look at Wendy helped with dealing with her.

Dipper shuffled down the stairs with a dejected look on his face. He saw the phone hanging off the hook on an end table. He saw Grunkle Stan sitting in his chair, unmoving; his eyes were glued to the television. Mabel said he was catatonic. Peering over he saw the TV was just set to static. Yep definitely catatonic.

Dipper grabbed the old rotary phone and held it to his ear. "Hello," he tried to hide his depression in his voice.

"Hey, dude. It's Wendy. Listen, I gotta a question for you," her voice didn't sound mad. Kind of confused, but Dipper couldn't hear any vitriol in her voice.

"Uh huh."

"Did you and Robbie have a fight today?"

"Well, uh. Actually it was more like…. I don't know, not-." Dipper stuttered.

"Because I was just talking to him, and he said you did. But then, he started screaming about a floating triangle ripping his teeth out. What exactly is he talking about?" More confusion leaked into her voice as she spoke.

Before dipper could respond Bill's voice resounded through his head. _"Just lie kid."_

"Uh, Wendy hold on a sec." Dipper put his hand over the phone's mouth piece. "What do mean."

_"I mean just lie. Is it that complicated? Just say that the pocked mark kid is crazy, simple as that. It's not like there's any proof."_

"Well, it's just… I can't lie to Wendy," Dipper harshly whispered.

_"Ya just lied to your sister kid. Might not wanna play the high road when you've already missed your turnoff." _Bill said matter of factly. Dipper's eyes dropped in shame.

Wendy's voice came from the phone. "Hey, Dipper you still there?"

Dipper took in a deep breath and put the phone back up to his ear. "Yes Wendy Robbie and were going to fight."

"Dipper! What it wr-!"

"But we never did. I went to the park to try and talk things out with him, but he wasn't there. I haven't seen him since. I'm really sorry Wendy! He was just saying some really jerky stuff, and then things got out of hand! I didn't want to fight him…"

Wendy was quiet for a few seconds. Dipper could feel sweat starting to form on the top of his head.

"Oh, Dipper…. You know I hate it when people fight." He actually didn't know that, "But… But I'm glad you told me." Wendy spoke in a dejected tone.

"You're not mad are you?" Dipper sounded like he was talking to his mother.

"No I'm not mad. It's just… Listen the next time Robbie does something stupid just tell me okay. Don't go getting into fights. Alright?"

"Y-Yeah of course." Dipper couldn't believe that worked. He was normally a terrible liar.

"Well. At least you actually didn't get into a fight. But what about all that weird stuff Robbie was talking about? Do you know about that?"

"No idea." He tried not to sound too boisterous in his lie. "He does hang out around paint an awful lot. You know, with all those muffin drawings he does."

"Ha! Maybe. I guess he might have just had a nightmare during his mid-day nap."

"Robbie takes mid-day naps?" Dipper said with a chuckle.

Wendy gave a snort, "Yep, since he was kid. If he doesn't he gets cranky." Wendy continued to giggle.

"That's great."

"Don't tell him I told you though. He gets all butt hurt whenever anyone mentions it."

"No worries. My lips are sealed."

"Awesome. I gotta let you go Dipper. My dad just cracked the door frame…. again. See ya."

"Yeah, see you," a big dumb smile spread over Dipper's face. Even in the face of getting in huge trouble, Dipper still loved talking to his crush.

_"That was superb, Pine Tree! I didn't think a little milk toast brat had it in you. Lying that is. I'm talking about you just lied through your teeth to the girl you love. Takes a real monster for that kind of work." _Bill chimed in his mind.

"I-I don't love Wendy! It's not like that…" Dipper sputter turned into an embarrassed whisper.

_"Hahahaha! Keep the lying to the normal people, boy. It don't work on me. Ya know, being able to read your thoughts and all." _Dipper didn't respond. He looked out the window and saw the sun starting to set. He hadn't realized how much time had passed since this whole thing started. Dipper felt the day's trials beginning to finally take a toll on him.

He just wanted sleep right now. Forget about everything he'd had to deal with for a few hours and enjoy a good dream or to. Dipper dragged his heavy feet up the stairs as fast as his exhausted limbs would take him.

_"Hey! Hey! Dumb kid! You're going the wrong way! The minds of your fellow mouth breathing monkeys are the other way! Out the door! Hey! Hey!" _Bill screamed.

"I need sleep. We'll deal with this tomorrow."

_"What do you mean need sleep? Just don't. What's the big deal!?" _Dipper ignored the screaming in his head. He climbed to the top of the stairs and wobbled into his shared bedroom. Mabel was lying on her bed, admiring a collection of strange looking stitch marks on a sweater in front of her. It may have been a swarm of bees or a rutabaga; Dipper honestly could tell, or care.

"Wazzup Bro, bro! You headin to bed already? It's only like eight. Hey! Look at my new sweater! Isn't it awesome?! It's a swarm of rutabagas!" Mabel was still wide awake. Turning an old man into a vegetable must not have as tiring as combing your soul with an evil demon. Go figure.

"Yeah…. Tired….. Need…. Sleeeepppp," Dipper only barely got out his last words as he drifted off into unconsciousness. The last thing he heard was more raving from Bill. Or maybe it was Mabel. It didn't matter.

Dipper was in a dark world. It reminded him of his house back home. Lots of windows, a big couch in the middle of the room, not enough bathrooms. It was almost the same. Its difference lied in its scope. Everything was stretched and colorless. Like a boring map painting from a school play.

He looked around and saw a long hallway. It was slightly more illuminated than the room he was currently sitting in. Walking into the lightened path revealed a countless number of doors. Some looked old and beaten, while other had the look of fresh paint. A few had labels. Band recital, summer camp, Grandma, etc.

He pulled open one of the doors to look inside a room. A bright light filled his vision to reveal the image of himself and his sister, albeit much younger. They looked to be about four or five. Both of them were outside, in the front yard of their home; Dipper sitting under a tree coloring in a picture book. Mabel was throwing pine cones to squirrels, hoping they'd accept her as one of their own.

Dipper watched the younger versions of himself and Mabel. They looked so peaceful. Just your everyday kids, doing normal things. It reminded Dipper of how weird things had actually gotten. It seemed so surreal to think his life was so benign in comparison to what it was now. Strange creatures, secret societies, evil monsters….

An odd sound filled Dipper's ears. Like brick being thrown together. He turned his back out into the endless hallway and saw it. A collection of rectangular lights dragging themselves together. Their yellow color and familiar shape tipped Dipper off to what they were.

_"Bill. What's happening?" _Dipper's voice had taken on a slight echo.

_"Ooohhh! You ruined it kid! My big entrance!" _Bill's voice called from the floating shapes. Two bright lines shot from the edges of the bricks and connected at a point. A large unfeeling eye, followed by long spindly limbs sprouted from the triangle.

_"You've got no eye for drama, Pine Tree," _Bill said in his nasally voice.

_"What's happening? What is… all this?" _Dipper motioned all around him.

_"Ha! Can't recognize something so familiar?! Welcome to the mindscape! More specifically your mindscape. The personification of your personality, emotions, and memories; taking the form a familiar area."_

_ "This is my head? It looks so…. bland."_

_ "They all look like that! So don't worry it doesn't mean that you're a boring lump of person! You are! But the mindscape isn't showing it, you already do that well enough! Hahaha!"_

Dipper seethed. _"Well what am I doing here? Did you bring me here?"_

_ "Not on purpose. Probably just a side effect from your dumb spell. When your body's 'resting' or whatever your mind doesn't have a place to go. Contact with yours truly probably disconnected your mind from your body. You'll be fine when you wake up. Well, probably. You might just be trapped here forever, and live the rest of your miserable life as an ugly spud! Just like your uncle! Hahahhaha!"_

Dipper sighed at the demon's jabbing. Was this all he could do. Make fun of him and yell weird metaphysical nonsense. Dipper turned around and went back into the main room of his mind. He looked over to the big couch and took a heavy seat on its fluffy mass. It was just like the one at his home. Lumpy and soft in all the right places.

He saw Bill float up in front of him. _"So," Bill stated, "I'm guessing your just going to sit around until morning huh?"_

_ "Why do you care?"_

_ "Because I can't leave, you stupid child! I'm bound to your existence! Remember?! Even in the place I call home, the ego's domain, I'm trapped here with a wet blanket! You are fixing this thing, kid! __**GET ME**__?!" _Bill's anger rose sharply in his voice.

A sigh escaped Dipper's lips, _"Oh don't worry, triangle man. I will." _Dipper closed his eyes. Even though he was technically asleep, he felt exhausted. Sleeping the dream realm was probably impossible, so Dipper decided to just walk around his head. It was better than just listening to a raving shape.

Dipper decided to go into the memory hall again. Maybe remembering the times before any of this mess might put him in a good mood.

_"Hmm. I guess elementary school memories could be cool."_


	5. Chapter 5

Deep in the subconscious of a perpetually paranoid twelve year old boy two people insistently bickered. One of the people was said twelve year old boy. The other was not a person at all. A floating facsimile of energy and emotion in the shape of a golden pyramid. The both stood, or floated rather, in a large white room, carpeted wall to wall with strangely patterned fabric. Images of equations and scribbled notes filled the headspace of the room.

_"Man, Dip Stick. You sure do have a lot repression in here! Look at all these secret hatreds and mockeries!" _The pyramid, Bill was commenting on the state of Dipper's, the boy's, mind.

_"Hey! It's not that bad. I bet my head's pretty clean in comparison to someone like Mabel's or Stan's," _Dipper defended.

_"You'd be right on the latter! It's a mess in there! I wouldn't know about Sweater."_

_ "Don't call her Sweat- Wait? You've been in Grunkle Stan's mind?" _How long had Bill been in gravity falls.

_"Who said I had?! I know I didn't! Hey what's that?!" _Bill quickly changed the subject to a floating trapdoor near the "wall" of the room. It opened with a snap of Bill's fingers revealing a collection of images, all showing Dipper's crush, Wendy, in some capacity.

_"Hey, get out of there! Those are private!" _Dipper hastily screamed.

_"I don't even know what that means!" _Bill's single eye stretched out like a snake into the trap door. It twitched and moved to look around the expanse of the hidden thoughts. _"Oh ho, ho! This is scandalous Pine Tree! I wouldn't want to be you if these ever got out to this chick! Or anybody really! You're messed up!"_

_ "I am not!" _Dipper ran over to the floating demon and pulled him from the door. As he threw the shape behind him he saw that Bill was still eye first in the door. _"What the?" _Dipper turned and saw that Bill was also behind him. He pulled again, but was met with a similar result. Another Bill went sailing overhead. And another, and another, until the room was filled with a football team's sized grouping of them.

_"Hahahahaha!" _Every Bill spoke at once, _"It's funny how dumb you are. You might have a mode come of control over what I do in the real world, but remember kid, I'm the master of the mind! In here I'm like a __**GOD! **__Or a nightshift manager." _Bill retracted his tendril-like eye from the door. It shut with a snap and floated out of the room.

_"Keep calm kid. If I've gotta wait for your useless flesh to recharge for the day, than I'm gonna do whatever I want in your psyche." _Dipper wanted to wake up. He tired of looking at his memories quick, and he couldn't stand being trapped in his own head. The sound of shuffling paper came into Dipper's ear. Turning he saw all of the Bill's combining back into one.

_"You want to wake up? Then wake up," _Bill pointed his cane above him, _"Look it's about that time for you to shake those noodle legs of yours!" _A large clock was above both of them, it read 9:00 a.m. _"It's your internal clock! Get it?! Hahahaha- What nothing? Come on I spent hours on that one._

_ "How do I wake up?" _Dipper ignored the awful joke.

Bill shrugged, _"I don't sleep. So I've never had to wake up. Just try believing in yourself or something. That usually works for flesh sticks right?" _

Dipper closed his eyes and concentrated on waking up. He felt the world start to shake. His eyes snapped open to reveal the room, and the entire world, was starting to crumble around them.

_"It's the end of the world! About time!" _Bill dropped into one of the larger cracks in the floor; his cane opened up into an umbrella, _"See you at the bottom kid. Hahahaha!" _

Dipper fell through crumbling floor. He tried to hold onto to something, but was unable to get a hold on the crumbling floors. He looked down to see a large black portal, shooting scary looking lightning and blowing out dangerous winds.

_"Ahhhhh!" _Dipper screamed as he was sucked into the vortex.

Dipper woke himself up with a scream. A cold sweat covered his body. It felt like he hadn't gotten any sleep. His hand was still throbbing, and a good headache was starting to work itself into a migraine.

"You okay, Brosef?" Mabel had just woken as well. "You have a nightmare or somthin? Was it that one where you're playing your tuba, but your naked, and Wendy's there, and the entire town too?"

"How'd you know about that?" Dipper's mouth felt dry.

"You talk in your sleep." Mabel exclaimed, "It can be really soothing."

"Did I talk any last night?" Dipper wondered if any of his arguments with Bill leaked through.

"Nope! Not a bit. You were out like a light!" Mabel got up from her bed and began to trade her sleeping cloths for a fresh sweater. "What do you think Dipper?" She held up two sweaters, one covered in horseshoes, and the other with a big crocodile saying "Been a while".

"Uhhh. Horseshoes…. I guess," Dipper was never sure about Mabel's fashion sense.

Mabel gasped, "That's what I was thinking! That's that twin telepathy working!"

"Heh. I guess."

Dipper got out of bed to change into a fresh set of cloths. Normally he wouldn't care about wearing old duds, but sleeping in his normal get up made him seem weirdly sweatier than normal.

"I guess I'll be blue today," Dipper pulled on a blue shirt he hadn't seen all summer since then. A fresh set of blue jeans was pulled onto his legs.

"Hey Dipper," Mabel said turning to him again, "What about thi- Oh my gosh! You changed clothes! What's the occasion? You're not dying are you?"

"No!" Dipper hated it when people commented on his dressing problems, "My normal gear is just dirty." He pulled his hat back on. It had fallen off his head in the night. _"That's right, kid! Defend your disgusting habits!" _Bill had decided to chime in.

"Don't you start!" Dipper yelled. He quickly regretted yelling at the invisible thing no one could see.

"Uhh. What?" Mabel said confused.

"Umm… I was talking to… uh… Grunkle Stan!" Dipper covered his tracks expertly.

"He's down stairs though."

"Well… Yeah! I knew that. It's just I heard him from down stairs is all. Listen Mabel I've got some stuff to do today, so I'll see you later." Dipper then took a single suspicious step forward before bolting down the stairs and out the door.

Mabel looked at her brother's wake and shrugged, "Puberty."

Dipper sprinted out the front door of the Mystery Shack without looking back. Getting this thing done was going to be easier than making up stupid excuses all the time for a screaming triangle in his head.

"Okay Bill. What are we doing? What's first?"

_"Oh, so you wanna work now, huh? I mean I guess we can, but don't you want to do more boring human things like breathe in oxygen to your lungs? Or maybe fill your noise tube with carbohydrates," _Bill said, annoyed at the workings of the human body.

"Well I could. Maybe have a big breakfast with Grunkle Stan and Mabel, take a nice, long shower. I could even have a conversation with Grunkle Stan about his days in prison."

_"No! Please, no! Fine kid, you win. Let's get moving. You're first target is going to be a baby-man by the name of Gideon Gleeful." _

"Gideon! He's got a journal?! Well actually, yeah that does make sense."

_"Good, you already know him. That's one needless explanation avoided," _Bill sounded relieved, _"I hope invading his mind won't be a __**PROBLEM**__."_

"Messing with that psycho's head is probably going to be the only thing we're ever going to agree on. Let's get'em!" Dipper sounded legitimately excited. "So how's this going to go down? Are you going to like cast some spell or something at him? Take him into the dream world like you did with me?"

_"Well first we're going to get his house, right? Still with me? Then you sneak up behind him and brain him a large blunt instrument! Then while he's unconscious I pull out the information I need. Sounds good right?! Feel free to compliment me on my genius."_

"That's crazy! Can't you just do what you did to Robbie?! Pull him into that weird slowed down place, or something?"

_"Yeah, that's not how it works, guy. I can pull anyone into a limited mindscape, but if I want at their juicy brains they need to be asleep. Otherwise the most I'll get is their boring base thoughts."_

"Can't we just get at him while he's asleep?" Dipper reasoned.

_"If you haven't noticed with your fancy double eyes, it's morning now! He's probably awake. If you hadn't spent __**TWELVE **__whole hours __**SLEEPING**__ we could have done it last night!"_

"But-but I had to! Sleep denervation isn't exactly the best thing to work with," Dipper sputtered.

_"Yeah, yeah. Whatever meat bag, let's get moving. We're not wasting any more time. And I don't care how you knock the dwarf out, just __**DO IT**__!" _Bill finished his instructions with one last voice modulation.

Dipper walked along the grass in silence after that. Trying to piece together a plan to knock Lil' Gideon out without hurting him. He hated the little freak with all his heart, but he was still a kid. Younger than him. Even sociopathic children were hard to hit.

The demon and boy arrived at the Gleeful estate just in time to see Gideon's car salesmen father, Buddy, leave for his car lot.

"Be good to your mother now, precious!" the rotund man called into his front door. Dipper waited around the corner for him to leave in his bright blue station wagon. "Good morning young Dipper! I like your new look. Nice change of pace" Dipper hadn't hid well enough.

_"Smooth move," _Bill snarked.

"Be quiet," Dipper shushed. He waved nervously as the man drove by. Luckily Gideon's father was much more agreeable than his spawn. The fat man returned the wave and continued to his workplace. Dipper sighed in relief. Sneaking around was not his forte.

He crept along the wire fence of the yard to look inside the front windows. Dipper saw a wiry looking woman handling a vacuum cleaner. Her hair looked like birds would nest in it, and her face had a permanent look of anguish plastered across it.

"Yikes! I guess living with someone like Gideon can be stressful," Dipper commented as he moved toward the house. "You sure, Gideon's even here? He might be at his tent."

_"I doubt it. His little act is a night show," _Bill said in a surprisingly rational tone.

"Oh, well that's good."

_"Go through the front door."_

"Really. What about the mom?" Dipper asked.

_"I doubt she'll care, Pine Tree. Let's just hope that Gideon is still asleep or on the pot. It'll be easier to take him out. By the way. Did you ever figure out what you're going to do?"_

"Let's deal with that when we get to it," Dipper whispered as he opened the front door. It was unsurprisingly left unlocked. No one in town was going to even think of breaking into the Gleeful residence.

The house was immaculately clean, appearing more like a furniture showroom than an actual house. Mrs. Gleeful didn't pay them any mind as Dipper stepped through the door. Dipper looked at the disturbing looking clown painting in their living room.

_"That looks like the one Grunkle Stan brought home," _Dipper thought. He crept through the house, passing Mrs. Gleeful, who just vacuumed behind him as he walked. He found the kitchen next, it also sported the same color scheme. A loud barking came from deeper inside the house.

"Mother! I am done bathing! Bring me my breakfast!" it was Gideon. His screaming caused Mrs. Gleeful to drop her vacuum with a shout.

_"Here's your chance, kid. Go get'em!" _Bill was excited.

Dipper gulped and thought of a slapdash plan. He watched Mrs. Gleeful move erratically to the kitchen and begin pouring a bowl of "Smack My Sugar Up" Cereal. Milk spilled over their clean counter and onto the equally untouched linoleum.

"Um, Mrs. Gleeful?"

"Ah!" she dropped the box onto the counter and turned to face him. She stared at him like a starving coyote.

"I can do that if you want. So you can um… vacuum. If you want."

"Really?" Her voice slightly perked. She then silently moved from the counter and went back to vacuuming the floor.

"That actually worked," Dipper couldn't believe how easy that was. He picked up the cereal box finished fixing the bowl. Taking the bowl from the counter then he moved from the kitchen back to the living room. He looked about and saw the stairs leading to the second floor.

_"I don't think feeding the kid is going to knock him out, he's not that baby like. Or wait! Maybe you're going to just hit him with the bowl!? A nice crack outta do it!" _Bill spoke as Dipper started up the stairs. Dipper did not respond. He climbed to the top of the case and peered down the hallway.

Another shriek came from the first door on the right, "Mother! Hurry! Drop the confounded machine and feed me!" Dipper noted that being Gideon's room and moved past it. He opened the door across from the little superstar's room to the room he desired, the bathroom.

"Jack-pot," the creeping boy whispered.

He switched the light on and set the bowl of sugar and milk onto the sparkling sink. Dipper pulled at the mirror above the faucet, seeing the hinges on the side. The medicine cabinet revealed a wide variety of pill bottles and creams. Dipper pulled out several of the bottles, reading the labels of each.

_"Oh, kid this is great! Drugging the little monster is great!" _

"Quiet, this is better than actually hurting him," Dipper found what he was looking for as he spoke to the demon, sleeping pills.

_"How'd ya know they had knock out pills? I know already, reading your mind and all, but I want to hear you say it."_

Dipper sighed at Bill, "Mrs. Gleeful is obviously a neurotic mess. She probably needs some kind of medication to get sleep." He began crushing a small white pill and sprinkling the dust into the bowl. He then mixed the drug into the milk, making sure it spread out.

"This should work," Dipper whispered.

He moved out of the bathroom and set the bowl on the ground outside Gideon's door. He knocked once and then jumped back into the bathroom, leaving the door open ever so slightly. The opposing door opened with a crack showing Lil' Gideon in his normal, dandy, attire.

"What in the… Where is that useless woman," Gideon said in his high pitched southern drawl. His no necked head bent over to look onto the ground. He picked up the cereal with a huff. "Ughgh. Doesn't that dumb woman know that Wednesday is eggs day? I guess it doesn't matter, my sweet tooth has been bugging me lately." His voice momentarily picked up a cutesy tone.

_"Even when no one's around he does that dumb act!" _Dipper thought angrily.

Gideon walked back into his room, shutting the door behind him. Dipper moved out of his hiding place and put his ear to the door. He heard the disgusting crunching sounds of Gideon devouring his breakfast.

"This is so gross," Dipper whined.

_"It's your own fault. You could have just smashed the bowl over his head." _Bill did have a point. A violent point, but a sound one.

The sounds of Gideon eating stopped after only a minute or two of loud chomping. Dipper heard something drop and a sudden crash.

"It worked!" Dipper said louder than he meant to. He hastily opened the door to Gideon's room. The small performer was on the ground next to a desk, the cereal was spilled all over the floor.

Dipper hadn't expected Gideon's room to be so bare. The only thing that stood out was a model set looking eerily similar to the Mystery Shack. Little figurines of Dipper and sister were lying next to the tiny shack. He could also saw Soos and Wendy figures among the set.

_"Looks like someone was playing dolls before you got here! Hahaha!"_

"This is really creepy, even for him," Dipper said, now really weirded out.

_"Whelp, as much as I love mocking children, let's get down to business. Pine Tree, prop him up."_

Dipper gave an annoyed look to his hand as he pulled Gideon to a sitting position, "I have a name you know."

_"Yeah, and it aint Dipper. Now shut up, and put your hand on his head. The one with me on it." _Dipper complied. The sigil of Bill began to glow a pale blue for a moment before being surrounded in a flame of the same color.

"Ahhh-! Wait. It doesn't hurt."

_"Well that's a crying shame. Forget your lack of agony, child. You're about to go into an awful place," _Bill warned.

"I'm coming to?! Why?!"

_"Because I need someone to help me sift through this little monkey's mind."_

"I thought you were the master of the mind?! What am I going to do?!" Dipper cried.

_"I am. I'm also lying. I don't need you. I'm just bored! Hahaha! Hold onto your thalamus, chump!"_

A strained mumbling came from Gideon's mouth as the flame on Dipper's hand intensified. A similar blue light shot out from the smaller boy's eyes.

"Ahhhhh!" Dipper screamed as he felt his consciousness being ripped from his body.

_"Don't worry! It only hurts forever! Hahahahah!"_

Dipper's screams mingled with Bill's laughter as the world went gray.


	6. Chapter 6

_"Ahhhh! Ahhhh! Ahhhh!"_ Dipper was screaming at the top of his lungs. His eyes were slammed shut, not wanting to see the horrors that made up Gideon's mind. He continued shrieking for several minutes, in the blackness of his own headspace.

Bill floated up beside the boy with a consternated look in his eye. _"Kid. Uhh… Kid! Stop! You're not dying awfully!" _Dipper continued screaming. _"But you __**WILL BE**__! So shut up!"_

_ "Ahhhh!" _He was ignored.

_"Okay, we'll do it the hard way." _Bill snapped his fingers with a frown. With a flash, Dipper's mouth had vanished from his face, leaving only a smooth patch of skin below his nose. Dipper was undeterred, however, and kept on screaming. A series of muffled mumbles came from the now mouthless boy.

It took another minute of muted screams before Dipper realized what had happened. Opening his eyes, Dipper, put his hands up to his face to feel around. Finding nothing he gave Bill a look that signified "Dude, really".

_"What!? You were annoying, more than usual. It was the only option!" _Bill sounded oddly legitimate in his claim. It still earned him another annoyed look from Dipper. _"Ah well, it doesn't matter. Just think of this as learning experience! Sometimes you need to keep your mouth shut! Get it! Hahahahah- What nothing?" _Dipper was not amused. _"Take in the scenery in, kid. It's good for you or something. Human's like looking at things right?"_

Dipper, now sure that Bill wasn't fixing him any time soon, decided to look around the mindscape he had landed in. There were lights everywhere, of all colors and shades. Most were bright blues, with the occasional yellowish gold peaking around it. They moved about the room like spot lights, passing over Dipper every few seconds.

The room itself was also very colorful. Deep purples intermingled with light blues and yellows across a wide wall in beautifully, intricate patterns. The walls were covered in pictures of the little man himself, all flattering in some way. Gideon's entire life seemed to be on the walls. Dipper saw old baby photos to ones taken as recently to include Mabel.

Dipper shuddered as he remembered their "dates". He also saw pictures of his family, Bud and Gideon's mother. They were obviously old, since Gideon's mother didn't look like a train wreck. She looked happy, even content, as she held her child in one shot. Dipper wondered what had happened to the woman.

The sound of light piano came from somewhere deeper in Gideon's mind. It was playing was very energetic, but it still had a soft feeling to it. The song playing reminded Dipper of the theme song that Gideon played for his show, just much more laid back.

_"Come on, Pine Tree, the tour group is now moving this way!" _Bill exclaimed as he started floating down one of the many branching hallways. Dipper sullenly followed the evil shape.

The hallway Bill had chosen was slightly dimmer than the rest. The scent of an old woman's perfume filled Dipper's nostrils. It caused his eyes to burn. He grumbled in response.

_"What's the problem," _Bill's eye switched around to look at Dipper. He saw the Pine's boy sniffing and then shuddering from the smell. _"Oh, something clogging up the ol' schnauz? Let me try." _A gigantic nose suddenly grew from the center of Bill's mass. He closed his eye and took in a big whiff. _"Whoa!" _His eye snapped open and the nose fell from his body, crashing like glass on the ground. _"Smells like a funeral parlor! Oooooh! Let's see if the monster's had any one whacked!" _

Bill, switching sides, shot down the hall to a door carved from white oak. A plaque was hung on the outside of the door reading "Mother Memories".

_ "That's not what I wanted. A dead soul is not the same thing, nor is it related to what I want," _Bill huffed. He continued down the hallway.

Dipper stopped at the white door, giving it a look. _"Might as well" _he thought. He creaked the door open and looked inside. A woman was standing in the middle of a familiar kitchen. She stood at the foot of a burning stove, her hands hovering over a boiling pot. She sprinkled in herbs and spices from a container she held in her swiftly moving hands.

The face was that of Gideon's mother. Her face was serene as she cooked what was most likely dinner. Her hair was pulled back into a controlled braid, she looked nothing like she did now. Even her skin looked healthier in comparison.

Dipper watched the changed woman, transfixed, until a sharp cry shook his concentration. A baby was sitting in a high chair, not two feet away from the mother. Her different appearance had distracted Dipper from the obviously placed child.

The chubby baby had ghost white hair, it looked to be only a few months old. The boy had a strangely, southern sounding cry.

_"Hold on, my sweet. Dinner will be ready soon," _the mother's voice was soothing. It reminded Dipper of his own mother. Gideon's mother pulled out a pronged ladle, one used for pasta, from the other side of the pan. She uprooted several strands of angel hair pasta and placed it onto a small, blue plate. She then blew on the steaming spaghetti for several seconds before placing the plate in front of her son.

_"Here you are, honey," _she cooed to her son.

The tiny Gideon looked at the plate for a moment before suddenly picking up a clump of the pasta and chucking it at his mother's head. The noodles flew right into the mother's hair, causing the young child to giggle delightedly.

_"Oh, baby no!" _his mother chided, _"Food's not for throwing it's for eat-." _She was cut off by another face full of spaghetti. She sighed heavily.

Dipper decided it might be best to shut the door now. If that was the beginning, he didn't want to see the end. The boy reminded himself that he should probably give his mom a call later today.

Bill had floated about a hundred feet away by the time Dipper had finished watching the memory. The triangular demon was stopped at a darker looking door. Dipper ran up to the shape to see what stopped him.

The door was made of a sturdy looking, black metal that was covered iron chains. Dipper was about to ask what it was, as it bore no label, before realizing he didn't have a mouth. The boy inaudibly sighed.

_"Oh yeah. I know a secret door when I see one. This'll have the info we want." _As he spoke, Dipper tried pulling at the chains. They wouldn't budge. _"Figured. Move out the way, kid! Let me show you how a professional does it!" _

The sound of a revving engine came from within Bill's body. Several smaller triangles shot out from his sides and began to rapidly spin around his form. Like a miniature chainsaw, Bill shoved the top of his body at the chains. The metal gave way to spinning shapes, and shattered almost instantly.

The chains fell to the ground with a shaking boom. _"There! Impressed, human." _Dipper was; he did his best to look as disenthused as humanly possible. He gave Bill an unimpressed shrug.

_"What, you think you can do better!? Alright, try your luck meat boy!" _Bill's arms snaked around Dipper's shoulders and pulled him back in front of the door. The door was punched open by a third arm Bill had grown from his back. _"Tell me what you find Pine Tree! Hahahahah!" _Bill shoved Dipper into the black expanse of the door.

Dipper stumbled and fell face first onto the floor of the black room. Unlike the rest of Gideon's mindscape, this room was devoid of any lights, music, or smells. It was a sensory void. Dipper could only barely see his own hand in front of his face.

He pulled himself back to standing position; he brushed imaginary dust from his imaginary clothes. Dipper looked in all directions for some kind of sign of life. Even the door out to the hallway had disappeared.

The urge to scream filled Dipper's thoughts. The torment that he'd endured that day topped any kind of embarrassment he may have faced at the hands of Robbie V. He just wanted to be split from that evil little freak. He tried to help, but what did he get ridicule and his mouth erased.

Dipper angrily stomped around the black room, hoping to get some kind of catharsis. He jumped up and down, ran around in circles, and capped it by repeatedly slamming his head into the ground.

_"Just let me yell! Come on! Why!? Why!? Why?!" _the only screaming Dipper doing was in head. He started pulling at his head in rage. _"What did I do, huh?! Well besides torture a perfectly innocent, but really jerky, guy. And lie to my sister, and Wendy and… Man I'm awful." _Dipper fell onto his back; he looked up at the endless expanse of darkness. He punched his hand into the cold floor in defiance to whole situation.

The ground gave way to Dipper's fist, cracking like a graham cracker from the force. A look of bewilderment crossed his face before being replaced with fear. The ground continued to crack under Dipper's prone body.

His buttocks fell into an opening, causing a silent gasp. Dipper tried to pull himself from the shattered floor, but was stopped by the ground breaking around his pushing hands. The ground around Dipper broke apart completely as he struggled more and more.

A bright light escaped from the newly formed hole in the ground. It blinded Dipper as he fell into the space beneath the black room. The wind blew against him as he crashed toward the ground with increasing speed. Managing to turn around revealed a brightly colored room filled with fancily decorated tables and tea sets.

Dipper fell toward the ground at break neck speed, and suddenly stopped one inch above the ground. Relief rushed through Dipper on the avoidance of death. He hovered above the ground for a moment before being unceremoniously dropped onto his butt.

After a quick rub of his behind, Dipper, got up to explore the new local. It was much smaller than the black room, this room being only as a small stage. Besides the fancy table dressings there were also pictures of Gideon… and Mabel all over the walls. They were both sitting and smiling. They were joyfully laughing at each other's company.

_"This is the saddest thing in the world. How creepy can you get?" _Dipper thought. Was Gideon still this attached Mabel? It gave Dipper a chill down his spine. He continued into the creepy room. Muffled noises were coming from behind a large dressing cover. Dipper saw two shadows sitting behind the cover, both of them moving in excitedly.

_"Oh please, my darling, you're making me blush." _Gideon's voice came from one of the shadows.

_"No I mean it. You really are the one of the smartest, cutest, bestest guy I've ever met," _the other voice reminded Dipper of Mabel. The voice was the same, but the tone was all wrong. That and she probably wouldn't say anything like that if her life depended on it.

_"Well if that's the case, please continue." _Even in the mindscape,Gideon's voice was insufferable.

Dipper sneaked around a frilly looking table to the cover. Peaking around the corner, he saw a mind bending sight. Gideon was sitting at any tiny, little table, fully set up for tea. Across from him was one of the most terrifying things Dipper had ever seen. It looked like his sister, but her eyes were devoid of any color or life. They also lacked an iris or pupil, leaving them only as hollow, glass-like models. Looking at them made Dipper sick.

Dipper stumbled slightly from the shock, causing the dressing panel to fall over, noisily, on the ground. Gideon's fat neck sharply spun to see the intruder.

_"Dipper Pines!? What on Earth are you doing here!? How did you get in my mind?" _His voice went from shocked to threatening in a second. He jumped onto the seat of his chair to face him. The Mabel doll still stared at him like nothing was wrong.

_"It looks like someone figured out how to access minds. How did you get here?! Some kind of spell?" _Gideon angrily drawled, _"Who put you up to this?! Stanford no doubt! Well I don't know what you or that rat desire from my mind but you won't get it!" _Gideon seemed to be completely oblivious to the fact that Dipper didn't currently have a mouth.

Dipper shook his hands and head from side to side. He didn't really know how Gideon was conscious in his own head, but he assumed it was something similar to what he'd done the night before. Gideon gave him a smirk.

_"I bet this is about the Journal isn't it? Did you find the other? I bet you did, and foolishly decided to try and take it from me! Since that's not happening, I'm going to take yours, boy. You not having a mouth is a bit of problem for you telling me, but I can always cut you a new one." _Gideon's smirk grew into a grin.

The short boy rose from his chair into the air. The room began to shake and shift. The space around Dipper squirmed and morphed into a twisted form. The room took on a much more sinister appearance.

Gideon flew above Dipper and began lifting the furniture with an unknown force. A chair was sent flying towards the ground, in Dipper's direction. It smashed into pieces besides him. The older boy dove out of the way of the debris and began running from the floating psychic.

_"You can't run from me in my own mind, Dipper. My amulet may have been destroyed, but it doesn't matter here! I have total control!" _A dining room set was shot at Dipper like a bullet, before smashing right behind him.

_"There's unlimited power here in the mind! I can do whatever I want!" _

Dipper had hit the wall of the room. He held himself as close as possible to the cold surface. Gideon floated several feet in front of him.

_ "It'll be a million years before you can face me here, boy." _Dipper's mind grabbed at that statement. "Before he could face him?" Did that mean he had the possibility to? The mind has unlimited power. Maybe it was a two way street.

A dozen knives floated before Dipper. _"Let's see if death still works here,"_ Gideon mocked. Dipper closed his eyes and concentrated. He imagined an impenetrable shield surrounding him, protecting his body from any harm. The whoosh of the flying knives came into his ears, but the blades never hit.

Slowly opening his eyes, Dipper saw the knives stopped right before him. A thin sheet of glass was sitting between the blades and Dipper's body. It had worked. Dipper had made it from his own thoughts!

The smile in Dipper's mind became reality in a flash. His new mouth appearing right where the old one had been. Dipper grinned.

_"How'd do ya like that!" _Dipper was finely able to scream. He also rose into the air. The memory of what he saw Bill do before, crossed his mind. In a flash, another Dipper had appeared right next to Dipper. He had, had clones before, and the current copy bore the sign of that experience. A big number 2 was drawn on the copies own hat. _"You two's better than one, but how many can we get!" _Two Dipper's became three, then four, and then five. Until there were as many Dipper's as there had been Bill's before.

Gideon's face was locked in shock. _"What are you doing?! How'd you do that!?"_

_ "Maybe you shouldn't monologue when you're going to kill somebody," _the Dipper legion said in a matter of fact tone. Three of the Dipper's flew over and grabbed Gideon by his arms. Another, the original, punched the little psychic in the stomach. _"That's for being really creepy! Also for trying to kill me and stuff!" _

He aimed another punch at the boy, but was thrown off by the same invisible force from before. Gideon had the entirety of imagination to work with, and yet he still just stuck to the tried and true telekinesis.

_"That's enough! I won't be humiliated in my own mind! You think a bunch of copies will beat me!?" _

_ "We kinda hoped it would!" _All the Dipper's yelled.

Gideon gritted his teeth and screamed, _"Well how about this!" _Gideon's size warped and stretched out. In seconds he had grown to monstrous proportions. _"I've always wanted to be tall! It really fits my personality, don't you think!?" _Gideon swatted his hand at the gathered copies like flies. Tens of them flew off into the walls before poofing into dust.

_"Two can play it that way, Gideon. Besides I think I can improve on your design!" _The legion of Pines flew together and grew into their own monster. The copies shaped themselves into a giant Dipper. The gnomes of Gravity Falls did have some good ideas despite being so weird.

_"You called me creepy. Now that's disturbing!" _Gideon punched into the conglomerate Dipper. It collided with the pack of bodies, and was caught in countless tiny hands. Holding the giant Gleeful in place, Conglomerate Dipper began slamming its oddly shaped hands into Gideon's head.

The white haired boy pulled himself from the hold and then charged the Conglomerate. He collided with the group, and smashed through them with a heavy scream. The Dippers flew off into space, popping into nothingness.

_"Maybe I've been over thinking this!" _Dipper yelled, winded. _"I think I should just make this a lot easier on both of us."_

_ "And how's that!? You still think you can beat me?!" _

_ "Yep!" _Dipper waved his hand and Gideon began to sink into the ground. _"Tell me, Gideon do you believe you can dream within a dream?"_

_ "No! Sounds too complicated!" _Gideon yelled as he struggled.

_"Me to, but I think it might work. Just this once." _Dipper snapped his fingers and Gideon's eyes began to flutter shut.

_"Don't think this is- YAWN – over, Pines! Once I wake up, and then… wake up again I'll get you and your Journal! You can't stop me." _Dipper gave him a smug wave as the boy flew off into another sleep.

As the giant Gideon fell asleep, Dipper saw the Mabel doll wander over to their battleground.

_"Please, Gideon! Don't go to sleep! I'm not done complimenting you yet!" _Its voice still creeped Dipper out to no end.

_"Nope! Not letting this thing stay around!" _Dipper snapped his fingers. The doll vanished into nothingness. _"Whelp, that was awful." _With Gideon defeated, Dipper needed to find Bill, and where to find the other Journal. Dipper sighed in annoyance. He just wanted this to be over.

And like an angel from the cruddiest costume shop, Bill broke through the wall like a graham cracker into the room. His eye was wide with surprise at Dipper, and the remaining copies standing next to the giant, snoozing Gideon jutting out of the ground.

_"Whoa! What happened here?! Looks like you went all mental marine on Gideon! Oh, your mouth's back to. I guess you figured that out. Dang! I was liking the prospect of living with that forever." _Dipper gave him an angry look, mouth and all this time. _"Oh well. Guess what, though!? I found the location of the Journal! It turns out the thing was just on the kid's desk! Can you believe it!?"_

Dipper's eye twitched. He spoke in an even voice, _"You mean we didn't have to be here?"_

_ "Not at all!"_

_ "And it wasn't necessary to bring me here and take away my mouth?"_

_ "Not in the slightest!"_

Dipper looked at Bill and then at the rest of the Dippers standing around him. They all gave each other a knowing look and nod. Every Dipper jumped into the air and collided into the gigantic Conglomerate. It looked down at Bill.

_"Neat trick kid!" _Conglomerate Dipper reared its leg back, _"Hey! Hey! Hey! Don't you dare! I could annihilate y-!" _Bill was kicked like a soccer ball into the wall, breaking through again, and flew back through Gideon's mind.

Conglomerate Dipper Gave itself a satisfied pat on its back before vanishing, leaving the original by himself. Regular Dipper thought. Was leaving just as simple as everything else? He held his eyes closed and concentrated. He could feel his body returning to him. The feeling of real limbs and air went to his brain. The world of Gideon faded out of the frame with extreme speed, replacing itself with the color and life of the real world.

Dipper's eyes snapped open to Gideon Gleeful's bed room. Being able to move around as a solid person was a huge relief to Dipper. Even the throb of Bill's sigil felt kind of nice.

_"That was dirty you little brat! Don't think I'll let that happen again!" _Bill's voice was livid

Dipper ignored the, now trapped, demon. He didn't have to worry about his nonsense for the time being. He was in control now. He got up from besides the still sleeping Gideon, who had begun to drool, and walked over to the desk.

Looking about the model of the Mystery Shack, Dipper spotted the Journal under a paint set and container of wood glue. He really wished he would have spotted that earlier. He grabbed the old tome, running his fingers over the golden 2 on the cover. There realty was another one. He couldn't wait to read its context.

Stepping over Gideon, Dipper exited the bedroom. Well not before planting a light kick to stumpy child's gut. That had been way too much trouble. He trotted slowly down the stairs and went to the front door. He turned back before leaving, and looked at the still vacuuming Mrs. Gleeful.

"He's asleep you know," Dipper said to the woman, "You can relax now." She didn't respond. He heavily sighed once more and walked out the door. Couldn't help a lost cause he supposed. Outside the door now, Dipper didn't see Mrs. Gleeful's insane look in her eyes noticeably soften as he walked back to his home.


	7. Chapter 7

Bill waited in anticipation as Dipper walked down the street. He moved across the boy's body like an ant, crawling to and fro. The incorporeal being was not used to being trapped inside solid objects. Even a possessed body would get stuffy if it lasted too long.

The boy was casually walking down the street. He didn't seem to have a care in the world, despite having a demon stapled to his soul. Bill's eye angrily blinked on Dipper's forearms. It felt like an irritating bug bit to Dipper.

"What?" the boy whispered. He didn't want people to hear him talking to himself.

_"What are you waiting for?! Crack that thing open and split us!" _Bill's voice was erratic. _"I can't deal with this anymore! Your skin is like living on a baby wipe! And you're so small! Eat a little, give me some breathing room!"_

Dipper just kept quiet, as an old couple passed by him on the sidewalk. He smiled at them until they passed. "Just shut up!" Dipper angrily whispered, "You're just making this more uncomfortable than it has to be."

_"Hey kid. How about I move down a little lower, below the belt. Might be a nice change of scenery!"_

"No!" Dipper slapped his hand over his mouth. He hadn't meant to yell.

_"No?! Then hurry up!" _Bill's mark felt like a cigarette burn.

Dipper rubbed his arms while quickly moving over to a nearby bench. He pulled out the new Journal, its cover shined in the summer sun. Running his fingers over the number two engraving sent a shiver down Dipper's spine. The book's leather creaked as it opened. The pages were marked with signs of being repeatedly reread. The first couple had been torn out, leaving only chunks of scrap behind.

He flipped through the pages in search for something to do with Bill. Eldritch designs and pictures of strange monsters stopped his train of thought with almost every page turned. Sock Brownies? A collection of sentient tin cans? Cursed Egyptian super termites. Dipper shuddered at the last one.

"Yeesh! You'd think something with such a stupid name wouldn't be this scary," Dipper murmured, looking at the terrifying picture of the bug. Dipper turned the page, covering the scary drawing, and kept going through the pages.

Bill moved to and fro on Dipper's skin, causing mosquito bite like itching to go up and down the boy's skinny arm. Dipper scratched at the irritating prickle in response. The demon across his cage and onto to the face, right in the middle of the forehead.

_"Well!? Where is it?! Where am I?! I know I have to be in this thing!"_

"Would you cut it out, man!?" Dipper pulled his hat off to rake his nails over his skin to alleviate the itching. "I'm still searching! Calm down!"

_"I'll be calm when I'm out of this disgusting meat wrap! I can feel your sweat, and –ugugh – other fluids on your skin."_

A blush formed on Dipper's face. "H-Hey! It's completely normal for someone my age to sweat this amount. And what do you mean other fluids!?"

_"Look for the entry kid! Keep __**GOING**__!" _The itch turned into pain.

"Ow!" Dipper cried. He gritted his teeth and kept flipping through the text. His eyes were fixated completely on the book as he searched, completely ignoring the passerby. The street he was on wasn't the busiest in terms of foot traffic, but that didn't mean it was barren.

Other Gravity Falls citizens passed by the Pines boy as he read on the park bench. Strange looks pierced the oblivious preteen. The town's folk usually paid no mind to the Pines siblings. They knew the Mr. Mystery of the shack on the hill, and knew he had family in town, might have even seen them a few times, but never really cared. Even if they were normally indifferent to the twins, that didn't mean they didn't notice when one of them looked weird. Like creepy weird.

Dipper was scratching at the Bill mark on his face while he read. His eyes were intently scanning each page slowly and deliberately. It seemed like a normal thing to do for him. For everyone else it looked like the Pines kid had a screw loose. New clothes were never a cause for alarm, but when coupled with vigorous scratching at what looked like a tattoo it seemed like he'd taken up the family business in being the creepiest guy around.

People turned their heads with a cringe as they walked by, some silently mumbling to themselves about "Kids these days." and "That color does not work on him." Dipper thought someone was talking to him at one point and looked up at them. He smiled at a mother and child giving him a grimace, raised eyebrow combo.

The eye on Bill's mark squirmed to look at them as well. The mother's eye's bugged out to the size of dinner plates. She hoisted up her child, threw him on her shoulder like a sack of flower, and took off with a scream. Dipper gawked at the woman as she sprinted down the street.

"What was that?" Dipper confusedly muttered.

_"Pfft! Women! Am I right?" _Bill stated, matter of factly.

"Yeah, I guess…" Dipper went back to reading with a frown. No one had ever run screaming from him before. It didn't feel particularly good.

A little while after the incident with the mother, Dipper heard a familiar voice a little ways away. He was getting close to the end of the Journal when the sound of a teenage boy called out to him.

"Yo! Dipper-dude! What's up?!" It was Nate, one of Wendy's friends. He was walking with Lee and Tambry, two more of the teens normally seen around town. Nate and Lee both gave the boy a wave as they walked towards him. Tambry's eyes darted up from her phone for a millisecond to spy at Dipper for a second, it was like a wave, but not. The three teens stopped in front of the bench.

Nate spoke in his normal jovial tone, "Hey, man. How ya doin?"

Dipper closed the book with a thud and roughly placed it beside him. Even if she wasn't with them, looking cool in front of Wendy's friends was always a matter of importance. After a moment of clumsily trying to save… whatever kind of face Dipper thought he might have just lost by sitting on a bench, he responded. "I'm good."

"Sweet! Listen, have you seen Robbie lately?" Nate said in a lower tone, leaning in slightly.

More sweat started to form on Dipper's forehead. Bill's mark visibly frowned in anger at the sight of more human fluids. "Uhhh… No, haven't seen him." Dipper said in the smoothest manner possible.

"Crap. He hasn't been answering any of texts or calls since yesterday. Not since he started raving about some weird stuff he saw in the park. Someone said they saw him with you."

"Nope! Didn't see him at all yesterday. Yep! Not at all," Dipper squawked a little too quickly back. He tugged on the neck of his shirt and wiped off some sweat from his forehead. His moved bangs better showed off the Bill mark on his head.

"Well worth a shot. I guess we'll see you later th- Woah! Dude!" Nate pointed at Dipper's forehead. "Is that a tattoo?!"

It was then that Dipper remembered that he hadn't put his cap back on. He quickly covered up Bill.

"Uhh… No! It's just you know, some scribbling or something…" Dipper trailed off.

"Dipper, you've got ink?! Dude, let me see." Lee arced over his shorter friend with one of his long arms and pulled Dipper's arm from his face. The Bill sigil stared back at the small group. Its "face" was expressionless. Dipper closed his eyes as they looked at his "ink".

"Man that is sweet!" Lee exclaimed.

"Really?" Dipper cracked his eyes open.

"Oh yeah man," Nate said looking into Bill's eye, "I didn't think Crazy Jim would let a kid get a tattoo."

"Crazy Jim?"

"Yeah, you know? Crazy Jim? You'd have to have met him if you got a tattoo. He's the old, bald guy with a missing eye. Other eye is always red for some reason. Think he said it was a "Reoccurring Burst Blood Vessel" or something. Whatever that means."

"Uhhh." Dipper was confused.

"Or was it Crusty Jack? The guy with a hook for a hand. Surprised they still let him around kids."

"Yeeeeeah. It was that guy," Dipper slowly agreed. Whatever it took to look like a cool, fully mature, teen, guy; that was his motto.

"Awesome, little dude. Well we're gonna get goin. Thompson's gonna chug a whole tub of movie butter… again." Nate stopped for a second, "Hey, you wanna come. Since Robbie's vanished we need another man-." Tambry loudly coughed. "Uhh, person to help laugh at him. You in?"

Dipper looked at them and then the book. He needed Bill off of his head, and body in general. But he also wanted to be accepted by the group of teens that his crush spent most of her time with. The debate did not last long.

"Sure, let's go." Dipper got up from the bench, putting the book under his arm.

"Oh yeah! Let's do this!" Lee and Nate both yelled simultaneously. Tambry's lips curved up by a micrometer behind her phone. The teens, plus one, continued down the road to watch an overweight young man drink butter.

They all talked and laughed as they walked. If any of them looked at Dipper's forehead they would have seen that the little triangle man now had a deeply frowning eyebrow over its single eye. It had also turned bright, blood red.


	8. Chapter 8

A group of teens were standing around in a circle. They were in a movie theater parking lot, away from the front door and prying eyes. Two tall boys were holding a massive tin drum over another teen. He was lying on the ground, sweating bullets.

"Guys, I'm not sure if we should do this now. My breaks almost over. And my boss is gonna miss that butter. So will the patrons, and I don't think I can have that on my head," the teens voice cracked as he spoke.

"Thompson don't worry about it. What's one ten gallon drum of butter? It'll be fine," Lee said.

The other teen holding the drum of popcorn butter agreed, "Come on Thompson, we wouldn't want to disappoint our esteemed guest." Nate motioned to the only non-teen in the group. Dipper Pines stood beside Tambry, watching the older boys begin opening the container.

Dipper was a little nervous around the teens without Wendy. This was the first time they'd ever spoken to him without her around. Messing this up with them was not an option, Dipper had trained for this moment.

"Yeah Thompson do it!" he yelled at the overweight teen. "Thompson! Thompson! Thompson!"

Nate and Lee grinned with excitement at the chant, and joined in. "Thompson! Thompson!" The butter began to slide out of the drum into the waiting teens open mouth below. Thompson closed his eyes and accepted his buttery fate.

Watching the sweating teen gulp down ten gallons of butter without stopping would go down as one of the most disturbing things Dipper had ever seen in his life. Even the other teens were a little put off by their punching bag's butter drinking skills. They'd seen him do it before, just never this much at once.

The dour faced Tambry snapped several photos of the disgusting act. Everyone in the group shuddered as Thompson swallowed the last drop of yellow butter.

"Ughgh! Dude that was sick!" Nate yelled, letting go of his side of the drum.

Lee let go of his side in turn. "Yeah, let's go guys. That was a little too gross, even for us."

"For you maybe," Nate snarked.

"Shut up!" Lee punched his friend in the arm. The two boys started to walk away from Thompson, who seemed to be in some kind of butter induced stupor. Tambry got up from her spot on the sidewalk and moved up behind them. Dipper wiped a bit of sweat from his brow. That had gone well for him.

The boy quickly ran behind them to catch up. If things kept going like this, getting accepted as a regular member of the group was a distinct possibility. Nate and Lee continued their roughhousing as the group walked down the street.

"So….What now?" Dipper asked. He did his best to not sound too desperate. Nate and Lee ignored him and kept on playfully punching each other.

"Uh. Guy?" he asked again.

"Don't bother. They're practically deaf when they're like this," Tambry spoke up from next to him. It was the most he'd ever heard her speak at one time.

"Oh, so what are we doing then?"

"Probably nothing, again," the girl huffed, "It's like this most days. We hang around somewhere for a little while. See if Thompson will do something demeaning. Then wait for Wendy to get off from work. Then hang around some more," Tambry listed off their daily routine.

"You all do this every day?"

"Most days. Sometimes Thompson has work, or Wendy's with her family, so we- Hold on," her phone chirped. Her eyes shot to the flip phone, her thumbs moved rapidly over its tiny buttons. She hit 'Send' and continued, "Sorry. So we just hang around some more."

Dipper wondered if this what average teen life was like. Just walking around all day, not doing anything productive. Ridicule each other. Then just sit around not doing anything for hours at a time. He sighed and took a deep breath. He was going to have to get used to this, for Wendy.

"Alright, well where are we going to hang out today?" Dipper tried to sound natural.

Nate finally tore himself from his punch-fest with Lee and answered, "We were going to hang out at Robbie's place, but since he's like crazy or something I guess that's out."

"We could go to my place," Lee offered.

"Yeah and deal with all your mom's cats. I don't think so," Tambry sarcastically drawled.

"We don't have that many!" he shot back.

"Isn't it like fifteen or something, dude?! Fifteen of anything is way too much!" Nate countered his friend.

"We could go to the Shack?" Dipper softly interjected. The teens stopped arguing.

"Really?" they all asked.

"Yeah sure, why not?"

Nate spoke from the group, "I thought that weird old dude didn't like us hanging around there."

"I'm sure he'd make an exception for me and my," he then hopefully spoke/asked, "Friends?"

They looked at him for a second before responding. "Duuude! That'd be sweet!" Lee yelled.

"Yeah, let's go!" Nate agreed.

Tambry turned from her phone and gave him a small smile. They continued down the street, and started making their way to the Mystery Shack. During all of the talking and butter drinking, no one had noticed that Bill had vanished from Dipper's forehead. It had moved down onto his chest. Over his heart.

"There is no way I am letting those kids in the Shack," Stan said while shaking his head, "They're too much of a distraction for Wendy while she works. She gets all lazy and doesn't do anything as soon as she sees them." Dipper couldn't tell if Grunkle Stan was being sarcastic with that last comment.

Dipper had told the three teens to wait outside until he got the okay from Stan. Stan had been upstairs, he had finally shaken his catatonic state. He had managed to pull himself up the steps in about an hour. For him, that was good.

"Come on Grunkle Stan! You let Mabel have friends over!" Dipper argued.

Stan responded quickly, "Yeah two of'em. There's like what, five of those beatniks?"

"It's just three. Thompson's catatonic and Robbie's… Not around."

"Thompson?"

"The fat one."

"Oh!" Stan thought for a second, "Isn't Robbie that kid you were gonna fight yesterday? How'd that go?" His voice dropped his normal, grumpy tone with that question. Stan sounded legitimately interested in the outcome.

Dipper thought quickly. He couldn't tell Grunkle Stan what he'd actually done, he wouldn't believe him if he did. Dipper's voice didn't shake as he spoke. "We settled it like men," he sounded sure of himself.

Stan looked at his nephew for a moment, and then beamed at him with pride. "Hahaha! That's my boy! Settled it like men! Ha!" Stan slapped him on the back. "So did he knock him out cold, or what? Come on kid, I want the gory details!" the old man rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

"I, uh… I wouldn't say it took one hit, but it let's just say Robbie's got a glass jaw if you get my meaning." Dipper's voice sounded weird in his own ears.

"Haha! That's great kid!" He patted Dipper on the back again and started to move around him to go downstairs.

Dipper turned to catch him, "So can they come in? My friends I mean."

"Huh? Oh whatever kid." Stan started, very slowly, down the stairs.

"Really? Thanks Grunkle Stan."

"Thanks for what? Here get going. I'm gonna need the whole width of these things when I move," Stan motioned to the stairs.

"Do you want some help?" Dipper asked as he moved past the struggling Stan.

"You've got your way, and I've got mine. Now if you excuse me, this is going to take all of my concentration." Stan then began inching one of his legs down a single step.

"Uhhh. Got it." Dipper walked down past him to the living room.

Dipper walked out the front door and saw the three teens sitting on the front stoop looking bored. He gave them a thumbs up and waved them inside.

Lee and Nate jumped up and rushed into the house, each giving Dipper a high five as they went through. Tambry followed behind, she gave him an almost unnoticeable smile. The teens walked into the living room and took seats around the old television set. Dipper looked on and grinned to himself; he was so in! There was no way these guys would just think that he was some weird tag along, kid that hung around Wendy.

He turned to follow them inside and felt an awful burning on his chest. Lifting up his shirt he saw that Bill's mark had turned an ugly red, and the expression on the brand looked positively livid.

"Bill!" Dipper tried to whisper, "What are you doing?!"

Bill spoke for the first time in hours, _"What am I doing. __**WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?**__" _The mark burned like fire, causing Dipper to gasp in pain.

_"You've been wasting hours of our precious time! __**MY **__precious time with these hormone fueled monkeys!" _Bill slid over Dipper's skin like a slug back up onto his face. _"You are going to find out how to fix this, __**NOW!**__"_

"Fine, fine I got it," Dipper quietly groaned, "Just let me get somewhere quiet first." Bill didn't respond, but his host took the silence as an order to get going. Dipper moved back into the house, rubbing his chest while he did from the still burning skin.

"Hey guys! I'm just gonna go get something from upstairs real quick. You all hang tight." Dipper rushed up the stairs before the teens could react. They all shrugged at each other before turning back to the television.

Dipper climbed past the still descending Stan to the upstairs bathroom. He slammed the door behind him, locking it tight. He opened the book and started flipping through the final pages. Shock monkeys, deathshrooms, a weird, unfinished diagram, but no Bill. The boy was about to give up before he finally found an entry on the demon.

The Journal didn't have Bill's name, just a label of Creature #326. Dipper could still tell it was the demon from all of the iconography of his current mental resident. He saw several diagrams relating to Bill along with paragraphs on what he was like. This Journal's age definitely showed against Dipper's #3. The entry was written like Bill was some kind of benevolent being that was just mysterious, not the monster Dipper had spent the past few days with.

He continued reading until he found the summoning ritual for the demon. It spelled out similar rules and ingredients that the ritual Dipper had used included. In fact the only difference was the lack of an incantation and an extra ritual circle for the updated version.

The entry ended abruptly, the final paragraph was just praising Bill for being so kind and forgiving before trailing off the page in increasingly shaky handwriting. Dipper looked up from the book and shouted in frustration.

"There's nothing?!" Below, the teens looked up and then at each other. They guessed being regular was a big deal for the kid.

Dipper slammed the book shut and sighed. He felt Bill's mark shaking over his body.

_"What do you mean there's __**NOTHING**__" _Bill shouted within Dipper's head.

"There's not a thing on how to unstick us. Nothing, it doesn't even have all the stuff the other Journal has." Dipper informed.

_"There has to be something in there Pine Tree! Look __**HARDER**__!"_ Bill raged.

"I looked! There's nothing here, Bill. We'll just have to find something else," Dipper sighed at the demon's tantrum.

_"No!"_ Bill screeched,_ "I can't take it anymore in this bag of skin." _Bill began shooting over Dipper's skin at high speed, leaving a pained red streak in his wake. The demon moved up to Dipper's scalp and began circling the boy's head.

"Ah! What are you doing! You know this hurts right?!" Dipper yelled. Bill ignored his cried and continued to shoot around his skull. It felt like someone was hammering nails in his brain. Dipper turned on the sink to get some cold water. Maybe it would alleviate the pain.

Splashing water didn't do anything besides apparently aggravating Bill, who sped up his revolutions around his head. Dipper banged his head on the sink in exasperation. The pain was making his vision blurry.

"What are you doing?!" Dipper screamed. The light of bathroom was getting dim, he was losing consciousness. He struggled to keep himself standing, but fell to the tiled floor in a heap. A knock came from outside the door.

"Hey Dipper, you alright in there?" It was Stan.

He was given no response. Dipper's body was still for several seconds before a spark of life shook through him. His tiny arms pulled himself up onto the sink, his legs were barely holding him up.

Shaggy brown hair was reflected in the grimy mirrors surface. It hung over Dipper's round face, covering more than his namesake. He lifted his head to the vanity. Yellow eyes greeted the boy. A thin grin stretched slowly over his face.

"Dipper! You fall in or what?!" Stan yelled again.

"Oh don't worry! I'm fine! Fine and dandy," Bill called back. "I was just freshening up! Hahahaha!"


	9. Chapter 9

Author's Note: If any of the few that read this think this story can be any better, please tell me. Constructive criticism is the best kind. Also, thank you so much for the kind words. It really does help.

Dipper stared at himself in the mirror. His vision wasn't coming from his eyes, but lower on his body, a little bit to the right, at a ninety degree angle. It was like someone had shoved his eyes down onto his arms. He tried to scream out from his alien positon, but found that his mouth didn't recognize his command. He was only able cry out in his mind.

_"W-What just happened?! Bill, what was that?!"_

In the mirror Dipper saw his face stretched into a terrifying grin, his eyes had become yellow like eggs. An almost rectangular pupil peered down onto his right arm. Dipper felt himself being moved, like someone was picking him up. His view was shifted from the mirror to looking directly at his smiling face.

"How's it feel now that the skin's on the other sentient being, Pine Tree?!" Bill's nasally tone came out from Dipper's mouth.

_"W-What?!" _Dipper could only sputter in confusion.

"Ha! Your voice still cracks without vocal cords!"

_"What was that, Bill?! What did you do?!" _Dipper ignored the demon's jibe.

Bill rose Dipper closer to the face, his voice took on a sinister timbre. "I switched us, Pine Tree. Now you're the tacky prison tattoo and I'm in control." Bill turned the hand of the right arm, moving Dipper's view from his face to the mirror. He saw a symbol on his hand; it was a cartoony picture of his head, smiling at the world. Only his drawn eyes showed his true emotions, they shook in fear.

_"H-How!?"_

"Oh, that was easy," Bill waved a hand dismissively.

Dipper waited for more but Bill seemed to think that was enough information. _"That didn't answer my question!?"_

"What? You think I'm gonna tell you? Ha! You're stupid, you know that?" Bill moved Dipper back down to hang loosely from the possessed body. He turned from the mirror and began moving towards the door.

Dipper frantically called out to the demon, _"What are you doing!? Where are we going?!"_

"It's time to greet the world, Pine Tree!" Bill answered happily. He then walked into the bathroom door like it wasn't even there. Dipper felt the impact on his cartoonish face. Bill looked at the door quizzically before snapping two fingers in realization. He moved slightly to the left and once again walked right into the door. Dipper spoke to Bill like he would a child.

_"Uh, Bill? You have to open the door."_

"Right! Corporeal now. Gotta move the door." Bill nodded in agreement. The demon began clawing at the door, scraping up and down like a cat at a scratching post. He continued on like this until the door opened up from the outside, by the confused Stan Pines. Bill didn't seem to notice the difference in the door's wood and Stan's wrinkled cloths, and continued his scratching.

"Uhhh. Dipper? Y'all right there, bud?" Stan eyed his grand nephew's cat-like behavior. Bill looked up at the old man, his yellow eyes widened in surprise at the man's appearance. Bill jumped back from Dipper's uncle, a twinge of fear was noticeable in his steps.

Dipper tried to cry out to his uncle, _"Grunkle Stan, help! That's not me! It's something el- Ow!" _Bill swatted at the Dipper sigil.

"Hello, Stan Pine! How are you doing to-day!?" Bill's voice oddly fluctuated with every word.

"I'm good, how about you?" Stan asked warily, "You were in there for like an hour or somethin."

"Oh I was just relieving myself of human waste, like we all do." Bill nodded along to his words. He moved past Stan, shakily, and hilariously shuffled over to the stair case. "If you excuse me, I will now be joining my friends," he said friends while using his hands to make quotation marks. He did a one eighty and then fell face first down the stairs, as if that was the proper thing to do. Stan looked on with a finger raised in slight protest and open mouth agape.

As he watched his nephew fall down the steps with very painful sounding thuds echoing up the stair case, Stan shrugged in apathy. "Kids, these days," he muttered, walking into the bathroom.

Dipper and Bill crashed down the stair case in under thirty seconds. Each step they fell down caused Bill to chuckle. The pain was an amusing distraction from the sighting of Stan Pines. Bill knew he'd being seeing the old codger, but not this soon. He'd have to find a way of ignoring him until the separation was complete.

Bill thought for a moment, as he lay at the bottom of the stairs, face shoved against the cold floor. He couldn't remember why he was so worried about the interference of Stan Pines. Bill hadn't been able to think as omnisciently since the ritual. He'd have to fix that if things were going to keep going like this.

_"Ughgh… Bill," _Dipper groaned from the limply splayed out right arm, _"Why?" _Dipper wondered aloud to the demon.

Bill ignored his body's rightful owner and pulled himself back to a standing position. His smiling face inched toward the archway leading to the living room. The group of teens, Dipper had left there, were still sitting around the old television set. Lee and Nate both sat on the arms of the musty recliner in front of the television. Tambry sat to one side of the dinosaur skull next to the chair, her eyes glued to her phone's glowing screen.

Nate noticed Dipper's terrifying grin from the corner of his eye. "Hey, Dipper-Dude! Man did you fall in or what?" the tattooed youth chuckled at his own joke.

_"Guys, help! It's not me!" _Dipper was ignored once again by his corporeal friends.

"Oh, you know," Bill said flippantly. He sauntered over to the arm chair the two boys sat on and sat himself between them. "Butt stuff." he sighed out as he sank into the chair, making sure to grind the Dipper mark against the abrasive material of the recliner.

"Pfft! Yeah!" Lee laughed at the younger boy's perceived joke.

"So tell me what are you meat bags watching? Gas lamps? Paint drying?" Bill looked at the teens expectantly.

"Um, no just some TV man," Lee responded slowly. He motioned to the flashing boxes current programing. It was an infomercial featuring everyone's favorite, psychotic salesmen, Bobby Renzobbi. He was shilling his latest product, The Cat-O-Pult, which was actually a small trebuchet meant for launching home pets out of windows. It was only $29.99, if you called right now.

"Ha, so this guy's still ticking, huh?" Bill chuckled.

"What do ya mean?" Nate asked, curious.

Bill smiled his Glasgow quality grin at Nate, "Oh, you'll love this. So this guy on your boob-tube has been doing this for years! Way before this thing was invented!" The teens all looked at Bill in curiosity at his claims. He continued, "Way back in…. Oh, let's say 1849 when this fair little hamlet was founded." Nate and Lee looked at each other wondering what the term hamlet meant.

"Mister Bobby Renzobbi, or Robert Zobbizmen as he was known then, was a powerful wizard." the teens looked at the Bill/Dipper with confusion and interest. "He specialized in hypnotizing people into buying random junk off the side of roads! I thought he died! He got chased out of town by an angry mob and off a cliff! I guess he finally figured out how to fly! It's all in the lungs ya know." Bill ended his story by crossing his arms confidently across his chest.

The teens looked at him with mouths agape before Nate spoke up, "Dude…. is that true." Bill let the line float in the air for a few seconds. Letting the tension build up nicely.

Bill's yellow eye's popped open, "Nope!" Bill's hand grabbed the televisions blocky remote from the seat cushion. The teens watched the old piece of plastic soar over their heads and crash into the television's glass screen. The shattering sound echoed throughout the shack.

"Let's do something else! Something fun!" Bill jumped up from the recliner.

The teens had shrunk into their positions, scared from the sudden vandalism. They stared at the young boys shining eyes. They wondered if his eyes looked different. Less docile, almost inhuman.

Bill continued, "How about we all go into the woods and have a scavenger hunt!"

"Uh, Dipper. I think we might be a little old for that," Nate said warily, "Besides, we don't have anything to look for."

"Oh, don't worry about that! I've got a few things we can all look for," Bill's voice took on a menacing timbre. He waved his arms around, motioning for them to get up. The teens looked a little hesitant, but moved when the tween started pulling at them.

"Like what?" Tambry asked as she was ruffling pulled from her seat.

"Oh you know! Bottles, shiny rocks, old books…." Bill looked at the Journal that was being held in the crease of his pants. "Anyway! Come one, let's all get going! There's nothing more fun than running around like disgusting pigs covered in filth!" Bill pushed at the teens and exited the home after, quickly.

They heard Stan yell from inside the house, "What happened to the TV?!"


End file.
